Researchers reveal slang explosion

Researchers have found 57 words for a remote control such as blabber, zapper, melly and dawicki.

Hundreds of newly invented slang words have been uncovered by linguistic researchers.

Experts have found that slang is flourishing across all social groups, including 57 words for a remote control such as blabber, zapper, melly and dawicki.

The prevalence of slang has been put down to the global domination of the English language and its exposure to foreign influences.

Tony Thorne of King's College London, author of the Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, told The Sunday Times: "Once associated with enclosed communities such as the prison, the army barracks, the factory floor and the older public schools, more recently slang has escaped its boundaries and is running wild."

The latest edition of the dictionary features so-called kitchen table lingo, a category of informal words and phrases used by families that was first noted by the English Project at the University of Winchester.

These slang terms include floordrobe for the place where clothes are stored in a teenager's bedroom, grooglums for the bits of food left in the sink after washing the dishes and gruds for underpants.

Bill Lucas, professor of learning at the University of Winchester, explained that the words are often formed from the physical properties of an object or the attitudes held towards it.

"A lot of these words are inspired by the sound or the look of a thing, or are driven by an emotional response to that being described," he told The Sunday Times.

The new dictionary celebrates abbreviations used in text messages, such as YOLO, meaning you only live once, and TBDL for too boring, didn't listen.

Multi-ethnic vernacular to feature in the publication includes merk, which has evolved from describing murder to mean a verb to humiliate, and blud for friend.

Meanwhile teenagers have adopted gran slang - words previously associated with their grandparents - such as galavanting, rapscallion and reek.